Daybreak
by sparkle-cullen
Summary: An after-Eclipse story. Bella's POV. WIP
1. Preface

His eyes smouldered like black fire, the flames licking at the whites of his eyes, which provided a stark contrast. He was holding me close to him, and I could feel the coldness of his porcelain skin against my warm body. His mouth was open, his white teeth almost shining in my state of delirium.

I closed my eyes, and took my last breath of air. I felt his teeth sink into me and shivers tingled down my spine as the icy venom spread through my body, reaching every extremity.

I opened my eyes slightly, looking up at his face, which still looked like the most beautiful thing in the world, despite the small droplets of blood in the corners of his mouth. I smiled weakly at him, and then felt everything go black…


	2. News

The rain fell fast and furiously, like the tears of an angel crying with joy as he looked down upon the world. The small crystals of water reflected the sliver of sun which was visible through the soft, thick layer of clouds, scattering particles of light across the silvery sky and creating minute rainbows in the air.

The birds in the sky above soared with grace and poise, happily chirping and calling out to each other. A small butterfly fluttered past and I gazed at the magnificent multitude of colours on its small, symmetrical wings. Everything seemed so beautiful.

I glanced down at my left hand, my eyes fixing on the ring I wore on my third finger. Every time I looked at it, its exquisite elegance took my breath away. The diamonds glittered and glistened and the thin web of gold surrounding them seemed to cast a brilliant glow over the entire world.

I lightly touched the piece of jewellery that bound me eternally to Edward Cullen, and felt the metallic iciness of it. I sighed deeply as I thought about how much my life had changed since moving to Forks. If somebody had told me two years ago that I would be getting married at only eighteen years of age, I would have laughed in their face, and probably muttered something about how utterly irresponsible that would be.

Yet, there I was, stood the grey stone path outside my front door, preparing myself to tell my father that I was getting married on August 13th, a short time before my nineteenth birthday.

"What are you thinking Bella?" asked Edward, his voice sounding concerned, and partially frustrated. I knew that he hated not being able to delve into my mind at will to uncover my deepest, darkest and most secretive thoughts.

I shrugged; determinedly not looking at him, for one look into his dazzling ochre eyes could force me to do and say many things against my better judgement.

"Bella," he moaned softly, taking hold of my left hand with his cold porcelain palm, "Bella, please tell me what's wrong."

I shook my head, looking in the other direction, at the rosebush in my garden, still trying not to let my eyes meet his.

I didn't know what to say to him, because even to myself, I couldn't explain why I had my reservations about marrying him. I definitely loved him with all of my heart and I certainly couldn't imagine life without him beside me. I was eager to become a vampire so that I could stay with him forever, but something about marriage just seemed odd, so absurdly official.

But I knew that I had to do things in the correct order, and marriage had to come first, I had to link myself to him in every human way before I became immortal.

Edward lifted up my hand so that I could feel his cool breath on my fingers, making them tingle. He brushed his frozen, numbing lips against the ring lightly and whispered softly, "Bella, tell me."

"I just can't believe this is happening." I said slowly, endeavouring to conceal the hint of sorrow in my voice.

He smiled revealing his perfectly white teeth, and squeezed my hand, sending shivers down my spine.

"Me neither," he said, evidently having missed the sadness in my tone of voice. He kissed my pink cheek tenderly and softly, merely grazing my skin with his lips, "I never believed I'd meet anyone as incredible as you." His voice was velvety smooth and sincere.

I smiled at him, clandestinely pleased that he could not read my every thought like a book, for I was not sure if he would like what he found out.

"Are you ready?" He asked softly, looking into my eyes.

I looked back into his ochre pair, "I guess so." I said uncertainly, imagining Charlie's reaction when he found out that his only daughter was engaged only weeks after graduation.

"We're going to have to tell him sometime," Edward murmured, kindly but with an underlying tone of impatience, "it's better now than later."

Keeping hold of my left hand, he raised his other, ready to knock on the door.

I managed to stop him in time, my right hand catching his in mid air, I knew that if he wished to, he could easily free himself and throw my hand off, but he just froze, a bewildered expression flickering over his face.

"What Bella?" He sighed, his hand still hovering centimetres away from the brass knocker, wrapped in mine.

"I want to do it," I said lamely.

He chuckled slightly, a quiet musical laugh, and lowered his arm to his side, inviting me.

I took a deep breath and tapped the doorknocker three times sharply as I always did. My hand was shaking uncontrollably, still poised in mid air after I had knocked. Edward carefully lowered it down.

"Don't worry." He said quietly, but I noticed him repeatedly smoothing down his tan sweater, and wondered if secretly he was as nervous as I was.

Through the frosted window, I saw the distorted image of Charlie rooting around for the key, finally retrieving it from off the hallway carpet.

He opened the door and greeted me enthusiastically, "Bella!" he then let his voice fall, shooting us a disapproving look, "Edward."

Edward dropped my hand, and sidestepped away from me, to stand at a respectable distance.

"Charlie, how nice to see you." Edward said, a little too politely for my fathers liking. I knew my father well, and was sure that he would love for Edward to be rude to him, so to give him an excuse to hate him, even to ban me from seeing him. But, Edward knew this too, and so always made an effort to behave impeccably around Charlie.

Edward held out his hand and Charlie shook it once, gripping hard, before letting it go and looking uncomfortable.

"May we come in?" asked Edward, motioning towards the warmth of the house.

"I suppose you'd better," grumbled Charlie, muttering something else, something that I didn't quite catch, under his breath.

Edward and I stepped inside my house, wiping our slightly muddy shoes on the door mat. I hung up my jacket on the hanger and Charlie closed the door behind us, gesturing towards the living room in a resigned manner.

We walked into the room, and relaxed on the sofa, deliberately sitting almost a foot apart. Charlie entered to room and sat down on the chair nearest the television.

"Dad," I said, my voice shaking with fear and sounding unusually high-pitched, "I-we have some n-news."

If I had not been so anxious, I would have smiled at the irony of the situation. Considering the number of near death experiences I had endured recently - being almost preyed upon by a rogue vampire, targeted by the Volturi, and then tracked by a monstrous female who wanted to avenge her mate's death by spilling my blood - it was strange that I was so scared of my old, usually amiable, father.

"Oh," said Charlie absent mindedly, feigning interest. I wished, not for the first time, that I had Edward's power, so that I could hear what he thought we were going to announce.

I opened my mouth, ready to tell him that I was getting married, but the words got lost somewhere on the way to my lips. I sighed heavily and felt tears well up in my eyes.

"I can't do it," I whispered to Edward, whimpering pathetically, "I can't tell him."

Edward looked at me for a moment, and then stood up dramatically. He touched my shoulder comfortingly, and walked over to stand in front of Charlie.

"I would like to ask your permission for your daughter's hand in marriage," said Edward, politely and eloquently.

Charlie spluttered and I smiled at how old fashioned Edward seemed, asking my father's permission to marry me, as though I was a possession, being given from one male to another. But then, I reasoned, he was a teenager in the early twentieth century, when practices were much stiffer and more formal.

"What?" shouted Charlie, his eyes widening in shock as he processed the request in his head.

"I would like to marry your daughter." Edward repeated simply.

Charlie took a deep breath, and I could see his lips moving, counting to ten to calm himself down.

"Why?" he said finally.

Edward spoke to Charlie, but looked directly at me, "Because I love her so much, more than anyone else can even begin to contemplate. She means more to me than anything else in the world, and I could not live without her."

My heart fluttered inside my chest, as Edward spoke about me. I loved hearing him say how much he loved me, it made me feel, for a moment, like the most special person in the universe.

"You left her once," pointed out Charlie angrily, destroying my gleeful mood.

"I know," admitted Edward. He was still gazing at me, and I could see the pained expression on his face that he always wore when he considered those months we'd been apart, "and that was the worst mistake of my entire life. Not a day passes by when I don't regret that decision and wish I could go back and do things differently."

"It's too late," said Charlie, "and you never saw her in those months. She hardly ate, she hardly slept, she never so much as spoke to anybody unless she had to and she lost all of her friends. She spent all day and all night in mourning, as if a part of her had died. She was like an empty shell, it seemed that all of her will to live had been drained from her and she existed only because she was obligated to do so. It broke my heart to see my little girl like that and I can't allow her to risk facing that again."

"She wont." Edward said sharply, then his voice softened, "I'll never leave her - ever. I will stay with her for all of eternity. We're meant to be together."

"Why did you leave then?" challenged Charlie.

"I left because I thought it would be better for her, for you." Charlie snorted at Edward's response, "I was prepared to sacrifice my happiness so that she could be happy. But then I realised that my leaving had just made things a million times worse for her, that's why I came back. I was so unbelievably thankful that she still wanted me. Please let me marry her." His voice broke as he voiced his final plea.

Charlie shook his head. "I can't condone it."

My tears fell like an avalanche down my cheeks, my mascara running heavily. "Charlie," I said, "dad, I want so much for you to give us your blessing, I really want you to be there, to walk me down the aisle and give me away." My voice strengthened and I sniffed back tears, wiping my eyes on my sleeve, "But if you don't say yes, it won't change anything; I will still marry Edward. Please dad, be there for me."

"Bella, you know that I simply can not let you get married, and you know full well that you mother would say the same." Charlie took a deep breath, and continued forcefully, "Edward, go home; Bella, you're grounded!"

"For what?" I gasped incredulously.

"For-for… well, because I said so!" Charlie yelled.

"Chief Swan," Edward said, adding a soothing, almost hypnotising layer to his velvety voice, "you can't stand in the way of true love."

"Go home Edward!" Charlie shouted heretically, "Get Out!"

Edward nodded thoughtfully, and I wondered what he was hearing inside my father's mind.

"Of course," he said carefully, "I'll leave you two to talk."

"No, Edward!" I shouted, "You'll stay right here! He can't tell you _or_ me what to do. We're both adults and we can make our own decisions!"

Edward shook his head at me sharply and then stepped towards me, wrapping his strong, loving arms around my body, making everything feel so much better.

He put his face next to mine, under the pretence of kissing my cheek and whispered to me discretely, so softly I wondered if I had imagined it, "He'll come around when he's had time to think. I'll see you later."

Edward said a diplomatic goodbye to Charlie, flinching slightly when my father refused to shake his outstretched hand, and walked out of the door. I watched his back as he strolled down the path, getting into his silver Volvo and starting the ignition. I didn't take my eyes off the car until it drove out of sight around the corner.

I turned back around to face my father, who reached out to me and tried to put his hand on my shoulder.

"Now Bella, you know I only want what's best for you."

"Don't touch me!" I screamed through gritted teeth, pushing his hand away.

"Bella, listen." He pleaded, looking at me strangely.

"No, I won't listen to you! I really hate you!" The words left my mouth before I'd had time to properly think them through, and Charlie's face looked like I had slapped him.

I ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time, and slammed my bedroom door loudly before throwing myself onto my bed and crying like a bereaved little girl. My pillow turned black because of my smudged mascara, and felt as wet as if it had been outside in the pouring rain.

I got up to my CD player, and pressed play. The soothing sounds of Edward's lullaby emerged and I shut out everything else except the music. I tried to forget about my father's disapproval and my reservations and just think of Edward. I could see his handsome, breathtaking face, with his pale porcelain skin glittering slightly and his golden ochre eyes shining brightly.

I could hear his voice in my head, telling me that everything was going to be okay and that our wedding day would be the best day of my mortal life. I let myself slowly drift off to sleep, even though it was three o'clock in the afternoon.

When I awoke, everything in the house was silent, although it was still light outside. I rolled over onto my side and looked at my clock, which told me that it was 5pm. I stepped out of bed and painfully remembered the argument I'd had with Charlie.

Edward's lullaby was still playing, and I listened to a few bars to relax myself before making my way downstairs, intending to apologise.

"Dad." I said softly.

I heard no reply.

"Dad, where are you? We need to talk." I raised my voice slightly.

The house stayed silent.

"Dad!" I yelled, loudly enough for the whole street to hear.

I strained my ears, listening out for the slightest noise, but all I heard was the echo of my worried voice, and the sound of the television downstairs.

I poked my head into to living room, expecting to see Charlie sat there asleep on the sofa, or else watching the game so intensely that he had blocked out everything else in favour of it. But there was no sign of him.

The television was showing highlights from a minor league football match that had taken place today, and I watched one team score, hearing the measly number of fans present roar uncontrollably.

On the side table, there was a dirty mug, still half filled with cold, congealed coffee. It sat next to the local newspaper and the remote control.

A sick feeling of worry ran through my body. Where was Charlie? I shouted his name four more times, my voice gradually getting more and more hysterical as I imagined all the terrible things that could have happened to him. What if he had died, and the last thing I had ever said to him was that I hated him?

I tried my best not to worry; I knew that he was terrible for leaving the television on. I breathed deeply in and out, as I reached over to switch it off at the plug. I picked up the heavy mug and took it to the kitchen, telling myself that he was probably just at Billy Black's house in LaPush, watching a baseball game.

I tipped the cold liquid down the sink, and watched remorsefully as it swirled and spiralled down the drain. I washed the mug and put it safely away in the cupboard with the others.

It was then that I noticed a handwritten note on the countertop, folded into four, with my name written on it in Charlie's messy writing. The ink was still slightly wet.

Bella, 

I'm at the hospital – Billy Black is ill, they think that he has had a stroke.

Come and meet us if you can.

Love you,

Charlie.

I read and reread the note, deciding that Billy must be in a bad way, for the inhabitants of the LaPush reservation usually made a point of avoiding the hospital at all costs due to their hatred of the Cullens, for Carlisle worked there. I knew that relations had improved slightly between vampire and werewolf in the last few months, but I still imagined that the Blacks wouldn't be too eager to go near Cullen territory.

I scowled at the 'us' which I was sure referred to Charlie and Jacob. I didn't want to see Jacob Black!

But he had been there for me when I needed him the most. He had always cared for me, and I still loved him like I brother. I knew that this was his time of need, and my chance to repay the debt I owed him.

I donned my coat and left my house, locking the door on my way out. I climbed into my old truck and felt the road behind me vanish beneath my thick tyres.


End file.
